Liz Parker rolled on to her side and reached for the 'off' button. *Great! One more long, boring day at the office.*
She worked as a secretary for the top salesman in the state of New Mexico, but it surely wasn't her dream job. Right after high school, she had planned on going to Harvard, specializing in molecular biology, but the return of her father, a week after graduation, had changed her plans forever.
*June 4th, 2001, 5 years earlier*
Liz Parker sat in a window booth of her mom's cafe, reading through her Harvard material she had received that morning. *I can't believe I'm actually going to Harvard* she thought. *This is just sooo amazing*
Maria DeLuca, Liz's best friend, walked into the cafe and sat down across from her.
"Hey babe, whatcha doing??"
"Oh, hey Maria, I'm just looking through this stuff I got from Harvard. Can you believe they actually accepted me??"
"Liz, if anyone deserves their school, its you!! I mean, look at you, you have a scientific explanation for everything!! You are going be Head of Molecular Biology in no time!!"
"Riiight" Liz laughed, "and you'll be my wacky friend, just like we always planned!!"
"Exactly"
The two girls laughed and reminisced about all the pretend lives they had dreamt about since they met in 2nd grade. They had always ended up the same way. Liz as Head of Molecular Biology at Harvard, and Maria as her wacky friend, with some stupid job on the side. Liz always encouraged her to think of something she wanted to be besides that, but it was what she wanted. That's Maria for you!!
When they finally sobered up, Maria told Liz she had to get home and cook dinner for her mom.
---Both Liz and Maria's fathers had left when they found out their wives were pregnant. It was this that bonded them so quickly when they met, and they were the only people they talked about it with. The same with their mothers. Amy DeLuca and Nancy Parker were also best friends, and they would only talk to each other about their husbands. There was never mother/daughter conversations about the matter. Nancy had recovered from her depression quickly after Liz was born. She thought that basking in her negativity was just going to make it hard to live, for her and Liz, so she had taken counseling sessions, and improved greatly. Maria's mother hadn't accepted the change that well. She took a few counseling sessions, but wouldn't stay in them very long. She was really emotional and sometimes seemed really depressed, but most of the time she was a pretty good mother to Maria. When the two families had met, they had held great strength for the other. They called it the Miracle Move, because both mom's had felt strongly about moving to Roswell, New Mexico in 1991. It turned out to be the best thing in both of their lives!!---
Liz walked over to the front doors of the cafe, and flipped the sign, that now read "Sorry, We're Closed. Please Come again!!" from the outside. Then she locked the doors and started wiping down the counters. When she was almost finished, she felt a chill run down her spine. She slowly turned to see if anyone was watching her through the transparent windows of the cafe. The face she saw wasn't familiar, but something inside her told her she knew him.
TBC.....